Court Overturns Abramoff-Related Conviction for Ex-Bush Official

June 17, 2008— -- The Washington, D.C., Circuit Court of Appeals today overturned the conviction of former Bush administration official David Safavian, who was entangled in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal, and ordered that he should be given a new trial.

The court ruled that the judge in Safavian's case erred in excluding expert testimony from his trial, and found that he did not lie about an ethics opinion that permitted him to travel on a golf outing with Abramoff.

Safavian, the former General Services Administration chief of staff and Office of Management and Budget official, was arrested in September 2005 on charges of lying about his links to Abramoff and obstructing justice.

He was convicted in June 2006 on four counts of lying to investigators and obstruction of justice. Today's ruling by the appeals court overturns his conviction.

The government alleged that shortly after May 2002, when Safavian became the GSA chief of staff, Abramoff contacted him about obtaining leases for GSA-owned property where Abramoff wished to build a school.

In today's ruling, the court determined that an expert defense witness who was excluded from testimony might have explained to the jury that, because Abramoff never obtained or executed a lease, Safavian was not lying when he told the court that Abramoff was not doing business with the GSA.

"We agree with Safavian that the district court abused its discretion in excluding favorable expert testimony on how government contracting professionals view having business or working with GSA," the appeals court wrote. "Safavian's expert would have testified that an individual is not doing business with GSA until a contract is awarded, and that getting information from GSA is simply that, getting information."

"Safavian contended that his statements were truthful because Abramoff never secured any GSA contract," the appeals court ruling noted. "With respect to the White Oak property, the headmaster of the school never requested a lease and GSA never transferred the property to the school."